The first major Highland Gathering of the summer is due to be held at Blair Atholl on Sunday May 30th. A decision whether it goes ahead ‘live’ will made after the Scottish Government briefing tomorrow, Tuesday 16 March. If it cannot go ahead in person then Piping Convenor Dr Jack Taylor has confirmed that it will do so online with the usual competitions: A/P/Non-CPA Piobaireachd, CPA B and C Piobaireachd,…

Neil Clark: My grandfather, Robert Bishop, was a piper in the Allandale Pipe Band [above], based in the village of Allandale, near Bonnybridge, Stirlingshire. He’s the first piper shown in the video [below]. He was taught to play pipes by the second piper in the video, Robert Irvine. They are both shown in Allandale uniform, around 1938: On the outbreak of WW2 in 1939, the band signed up en masse…

The Piobaireachd Society’s third ‘Talk Piobaireachd’ session of 2021 takes place this Wednesday, March 17, at 8pm GMT. These popular discussions are open to members of the Society and have proved very popular. The Society’s former President Dr Jack Taylor (above) is in the hot seat for what is sure to be another engrossing hour of information, ideas and thoughts on ceòl mòr and particular tunes in the repertoire. It is is suggested…

Murray Blair and Ken Eller have been working on an online show for the popular weekend piping and drumming festival ‘Winter Storm’ held each year in Kansas City, USA. The pandemic forced the cancellation of this year’s live production which should have been held in January. The show is scheduled to air on March 27 and features, among others, Stuart Liddell (pictured making his recording), Callum Beaumont, Jack Lee, and…

Ballycoan were definitely on their way and the 1950s were to see a decade of unprecedented success for them, winning, as they did, the All Ireland Championship band title on no less than seven occasions and the drumming on six. Pictured above, P/M William Wood receives the All Ireland Senior Trophy in 1951. But before we get to that terrific run of success, let us firstly go back a few…